I love my new GPS, but I wish I could somehow fix its jarring mispronunciations. I don't expect it to know that Newark, Del., and Newark, N.J., are pronounced differently, but why does it say "Code-is-ville" for "Coatesville"? It swallows the "double-l" sounds in "Wollaston" and "Powell." It slurs "Clonmell-Upland Road." "Lenape" is truncated into two syllables ("Le-nape"). And "Toughkenamon" (admittedly a doozy for many humans, much less a disembodied voice) is rendered "Tall-ken-a-mon."
The GPS also took some time to get used to our back roads. "Driving on unpaved road!" it alerted me at first when I turned onto a gravel road I often use (like the robot on the old "Lost in Space" TV show: "Warning! Warning!").
I discovered to my dismay that my favorite traveling partner does not like using a GPS. He and I were in Montgomery County on Monday and instead of using the GPS's clear and accurate directions, he said things like "Oh! Butler Pike. I've heard of that; it must be the right road."
It was. Eventually.
By the way, it's so easy to get used to the special beauty of our corner of the world. Spend a day traveling through the endless corporate parks and shopping centers of Montgomery and Bucks counties and you'll get a crash course in how important it is to protect our precious, quiet open space.
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